Parkinson: We handled 'potent' Millwall duo well

BOLTON boss Phil Parkinson was pleased with how his side handled the “best front two in the division”, Lee Gregory and Steve Morison, as his side defeated Millwall 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Bolton won their fourth game in a row following goals from Sammy Ameobi in the second minute and David Wheater four minutes from time and are third in the League One table, level on points with Bradford and three off Scunthorpe.

Millwall are in 20th place in the table, above the relegation zone only on goal difference.

They failed to score for the first time in 26 games on Tuesday night, and Parkinson revealed his side knew that keeping checks on Gregory and Morison would be key to keeping a fourth successive clean sheet.

“We’d spoken about the start, which is so important home and away, but especially away because home teams are going to try and put you on the back foot,” Parkinson said.

“We started really well but I thought our slackest period of the game was after we scored for a 10-minute period where we kind of played square passes to put ourselves under pressure. But we came through that period unscathed.

“They’ve got a very potent front two. In this era of football where not many teams play 4-4-2, when you’ve got two at the top of the pitch you’re going to hit the front players early because you’re always going to be outnumbered in the middle of the pitch.

“When you’ve got two players of that quality you’ve got to get the ball to them quickly. They’re probably the best front two in the division, they showed that last year. But we handled them very well and we had to be at our very best to do that.”

Parkinson was also asked if Millwall could have closed Ameobi down more quickly before he unleashed his early effort.

He said: “I’m sure Neil will look at it and think someone could have done slightly better. But we conceded a goal at Charlton in the last kick of the game early in the season after winning four games. And there wasn’t a great deal we could have done.”